Domestic Bliss
by ncfan
Summary: "I want two kids at the very least, although every time I talk about that sort of thing, Shannon always laughs and says I'm getting ahead of myself." And he never notices the hysterical edge to her laugh. /George x Shannon, spoilers./


George's lines are taken from the VN version of Ep. 2.

I own nothing.

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"I have a dream," he says, deadly serious, neither smiling nor laughing as he stares into his cousin's face. "It isn't only an ambition to become the leader of my own domain in business. I also have a dream to build a family together with a partner I can spend my life with."

Listening to him, Shannon (because she is 'Shannon' here, despite however much George and Jessica try to insist that she is 'Sayo') struggles and fails to resist the rising tide of redness in her cheeks. Blushing, yes. But not for the reasons Jessica, who's not-so-subtly elbowing her in the side and even less subtly grinning, thinks she is. A rather lecherous grin, Shannon thinks, and however well-meant it might be, it gives her no reason to feel good about what George is saying now.

His serious expression morphs back into that wide, eager smile Shannon's come to know so well. Loves it she does, and finds it utterly daunting at the same time. "I want two kids at the _very least_," George remarks brightly. "And I'd like to do some sports that the whole family could do together, and many more things beside that. I often talk with Shannon about that kind of thing." _Yes, quite often. Too often. _"Although every time I talk about that sort of thing, Shannon always laughs and says I'm getting ahead of myself."

And he never notices the hysterical edge to her laughter at these discussions, never notices how the levity in her voice rings false. But then, something Shannon's noticed about George is that he pays absolutely no attention to anything, great or small, that could be an impediment to his happiness. They both have their flaws and Shannon knows that love is supposed to be about loving a person with all their good and bad aspects, but this one flaw of George's has proven to be a dagger digging down deep into Shannon's heart, and each word of his turns the knife deeper.

Shannon shuts her eyes and lets the conversation around her fade away. She imagines what George's ideal life would be.

There are three children, not two; after all, George always says "at least" two children, so surely he wants more than that. The youngest is a boy in the image of his father, but with Shannon's delicate frame. The two older are girls who look like their mother in every way, but are more spirited, independent and dazzling than ordinary Shannon ever could be. Their son is growing into a fine man, responsible and considerate of others around him. Their daughters are beautiful, and kind and gracious; they do not let their gender daunt them in terms of schooling, and strive for the very best. Shannon imagines finally learning high school algebra from her son, and all the other things she was never able to learn, working for a family that only allowed her a junior high school education.

She imagines being a stay-at-home housewife and mother, a life not all that dissimilar from the life of a maid in the employ of the Ushiromiya family, but so much more fulfilling than the work of a housemaid had ever been, for it is her precious home with precious husband and precious children that she keeps spick and span. She imagines her belly growing round and taut and smooth as the child within her grows, one after another—swallowing the moon, Shannon's heard Kumasawa-san call it. She imagines the warm, intimate pleasure known by husband and wife.

There's that whole life that's just waiting for Shannon to reach out and grab it. It's part of becoming human, reaching out for that life, and it's so close now, so close that she can taste it upon her lips, so sweet and so cold. But she will never have it.

"…_Because I am… furniture."_

"_Is that so?" He smiles all-too-innocently, the smile of one who remains blissfully unaware of what it means to be furniture. "Then furniture has to do what other people say."_

_And all the while, Shannon's heart sinks like a stone cast in the jewel-blue sea. You're not supposed to say that, her heart cries out. You're supposed to ask what it means when I say that I am furniture._

She is furniture. Kanon always sought to remind her of that, despite Beatrice's belief that furniture can become human through love. By the Witch, Shannon was led to believe that loving George would change her destiny, change the nature of her existence. But either the Witch was wrong, or even Beatrice the Golden does not have the power to change the reality of Shannon's body.

In the dark of night, when Shannon lies down to sleep, all she has to do is remove her clothes and see her body, to know that she is still furniture in flesh, despite having a human heart. She can never give George what he wants, can never be the perfect wife for him, and can not give him children. She can not give George children, and she can never know a woman's pleasure with her husband. A human could do all of these things, but Shannon is furniture, and George doesn't understand what that means, because he's never asked her (_always assumed that he knows already_) and she's never found the courage to tell him the truth. Her body is a lie. The promises she implicitly made to him about their future, by choosing to love him, are all lies. Their entire relationship is predicated on a lie.

George thinks she's human, despite all the times that Shannon has told him that she is furniture. He's come to the conclusion, without ever asking her, that being furniture means being the Master's servant, nothing more and nothing less, and thinks that this will be no obstacle to their relationship. His mother is no obstacle, he says. They will overcome, he says. His determination warms Shannon's heart and terrifies her to the marrow of her bones. She does not possess the strength or will to correct his misapprehension of her true nature, because he makes her feel as though she is human in flesh as well as in her heart, and for that, for those few moments of feeling genuinely human, genuinely desirable, genuinely worthy to wed with a human, Shannon can withstand anything. From George's teasing to Eva's condemnations to even the end of the entire world.

But it's all a lie.

He'll find out soon, if she agrees to marry him and they leave this island together.

_How will he look at me then? _Shannon can't imagine a happy life between a human and furniture. All her fantasies depend upon her being human in flesh as well as in heart and mind, but she is not human, not in her hand, her feet, her lungs, her stomach, guts or throat. The materials of which she is composed is nothing but furniture. If Shannon was human, all of this, being a true wife and mother, being able to make George happy, all of it would be in her reach, easily sought. All the same, her body is not human. Furniture isn't supposed to be good for anything but work. Furniture is supposed to work, be obedient, and wait for the anticipated day of release. Shannon may have aspired to more than furniture's place, but even the Witch, it seems, could not grant her human flesh.

When they are married, it will be the first night between them as man and wife, and he will know. George will see her body, bare and exposed, naked of all wrappings and disguises, stripped of all its sweet, enticing lies. She won't be able to lie to him anymore. She won't be able to make him believe that she is human anymore. He'll see her for what she is.

George loves her now. Shannon knows that. She knows that he loves her enough to risk his mother's wrath, risk the ridicule of his family, risk being disinherited and stripped of all rank. He's willing to risk losing everything to have his perfect, pretty, human wife. And yet, he'll see her for what she truly is, after having possibly lost everything.

Come their wedding night, George will see that the bride he risked and possibly lost everything for lied to him. She lied about being able to give him what he wants. He'll have no children from her, and no pleasure. He'll not have a human wife, but one who is human in heart, and furniture in flesh.

Maybe he'll forgive her. Things can never be the same between them, things can never be what George wished for and what Shannon hoped beyond hope for, but maybe he'll forgive her. Maybe he'll still love her, knowing the truth.

That's optimistic. But Shannon fears that optimism won't be enough, and can not trust to hope. She knows what will probably happen instead.

He'll think she played him for a fool.

He'll think that he risked everything for a liar.

His love will turn to hate and revilement.

He'll think she's disgusting.

He'll find her body repulsive.

He'll know her for what she really is: subhuman.

All of Shannon's hopes and dreams and carefully-planned illusions are going to come crashing down around her eventually, and the time when that occurs is drawing close at hand. She looks to George, blissfully unaware of how he has been hoodwinked into accepting a subhuman creature as his wife, and prays for a miracle. But Shannon already knows that no miracle among the living will fix this. For he is human, she is furniture, and furniture can never give a human what he desires most.


End file.
